Eclectic Interior Design: 8 Rules to Get the Look

Ever walked into someone’s home, or fallen down a Pinterest hole, and been mesmerised by a room that mixes wild prints, plush fabrics, furniture from three different eras and artwork that shouldn’t go together but somehow does? That’s eclectic interior design, and if you felt drawn to it, this guide is for you.

What is eclectic Interior Design? Let’s find out…

It’s the deliberate mixing of styles, eras, colours and textures in one room, held together by a common thread (usually a repeated colour, pattern or theme) on a calm background. The word deliberate is doing the heavy lifting there. Eclectic looks effortless and absolutely isn’t: without the thread it’s just a room full of stuff, and the line between curated and cluttered is thinner than Pinterest makes it look.

After sixteen years of designing rooms, here are the 8 rules that keep you on the right side of that line.

1 – Start with a neutral background

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I know what you’re thinking. Neutral?! There’s nothing neutral about eclectic interior design. Oh but there is, and it’s the hallmark of almost every beautiful eclectic room you’ve saved. Keep the wall colour simple and it becomes the backdrop that lets the texture, pattern, colour and furniture do the talking. The combination of those is what makes the room eclectic, not the walls shouting too.

2 – Pick a main accent colour

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With your neutral chosen, pick one main accent colour, the colour you’ve always imagined the room to be. Always fancied a pink office? Soft grey walls with pops of fuchsia will get you there. Other colours can join as you go, but one leads. Darker accents bring drama, lighter ones soothe. And there’s no law saying the colour has to live on the walls: a colour on the ceiling over neutral walls is wonderfully unconventional, which is rather the point of eclectic.

I love Little Greene Paint Company and Farrow and Ball paint colours for accent colours (and if you’re wondering whether the expensive paint is worth it, my honest answer is here).

Eclectic interior design is unconventional. That’s what makes it so appealing.

3 – Mix and match styles

This is the rule people think means “anything goes”, and it’s really “anything goes with a common denominator”.

Love mid-century? Start with a teak chair in orange upholstery, then add a modern chrome floor lamp, a vintage trunk, whatever catches your heart. It works as long as something is shared: a colour palette, a theme, a repeating pattern. Repeat that thread through cushions, curtains, artwork or a rug, in different tones and textures, and the room reads as one story told in several accents.

4 – Be brave with pattern

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If you’ve decided to go bold, don’t chicken out at the pattern stage. Geometrics with paisley, polka dots with stripes, patterns that look like complete opposites can sit happily together and add a touch of whimsy the room would miss without them. And remember cushion covers come off as fast as they go on, so there’s no commitment if you try a pattern and change your mind. This is the cheapest bravery in decorating.

5 – Build gallery walls that mix art with objects

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Bold artwork next to a macrame hanging, wooden frames, a tapestry from your travels. Choose pieces with a shared colour or theme and the wall comes together instead of competing. This is the most personal wall in the house, so let it actually be personal: things that mean something beat things that merely match.

6 – Layer, then contrast

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A flat room is a boring room. Layer textures (a knitted throw over a chenille bedspread), layer lighting (ambient, task and accent, not one big light), layer fabrics. Then make sure the layers contrast: marble with leather, steel with brick, flatweave rugs with fluffy throws. Balance it with small echoes, rattan baskets sharing their organic feel with bamboo blinds, a sisal rug, a wicker shade, and the room feels rich rather than busy.

7 – Add the unexpected

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Trust your instincts. If you’ve always envisioned a bold velvet sofa in your living room, get it. If the only thing standing between you and a purchase is other people’s opinions of whether it’s practical, go velvet.

The heart of any eclectic space is the personality of the person who uses it. Souvenirs from your travels, vases, sculptures, an over-the-top chandelier. If you have one large piece you love, make it the focal point and give it prominence on a wall or a coffee table. A whole collection can steal the spotlight instead, as long as there’s less around it competing for attention.

If you’re an avid cyclist, maybe a vintage bike sits at the centre of your gallery wall and a worn road map lives under the glass top of your coffee table. Bicycle-patterned cushion covers tie in nicely. Think of all the bold ways your personality can show up in your space, because that’s the whole point of the style.

8 – Don’t overdo it

The rule that saves all the others. There’s a fine line between eclectic and eccentric, and too many items or too many competing ideas lands you on the wrong side of it. Prominence means space: your unique pieces need room to shine individually, not a crowd to fight. Unify everything through colour and pattern on that neutral backdrop from rule 1, and you’ve got a room you’ll appreciate every single time you walk into it.

The honest bit

Eclectic interior design is the hardest look to do well precisely because it has no formula to hide behind. Every rule above is really the same rule: mix boldly, unify deliberately. If your room is “nearly there but something’s off”, it’s almost always rule 3 or rule 8, the thread is missing or the crowd is too big.